A good ventilation system is necessary to keep locker rooms comfortable for members.

Bob Calvo knows the importance of a good ventilation system in a locker room. As vice president of construction for Town Sports International (TSI) for 14 years, Calvo led the design and construction of more than 130 fitness center locations in seven states and managed more than $300 million in construction costs.

When TSI was in an acquisition phase, the company purchased many clubs because of their strategic locations and almost never for their infrastructure. Without exception, most of the ventilation systems in those facilities were beyond their useful lives, not up to the current energy codes and usually improperly designed for their applications, he says.

All of this resulted in significant mold problems, corrosion of building materials, odors and, ultimately, member complaints. New systems made an immediate improvement on the locker rooms overall, which translated into less maintenance and improved member comfort. And that almost always increases sales and decreases cancellations.

“Clean locker rooms and hot water will beat more treadmills any day of the week,” Calvo says.

Calvo knew then and knows now as owner of construction firm East Mountain Development, Sparta, NJ, how important good locker room ventilation systems are.

Without one, locker rooms can have lingering humidity and condensation, mold and mildew, unpleasant odors, warped benches and rusty lockers.

“Air should flow from the fitness area [of a club] into the dry portion of the locker room, and then to the wet portion of the locker room,” says Mike Ballard, CEO of The Ballard Group, a Lakewood, CO-based mechanical consulting engineering firm.

From there, the air should be vented directly from the wet portion of the locker room to the outside of the building, or it should move to the natatorium, if the club has one, he says.

Howard Haber, project engineer for New York-based EMTG Consultants, says many club operators tend to miss one important fact about optimal locker room ventilation: the International Building Codes state you cannot recirculate moist air. Rather, it has to be exhausted out of the building.

This is no small task for most club operators, as they have to vent a large quantity of air from their locker rooms. Members come into the locker room sweating and then take a shower, releasing even more moisture into the air. When members get out of the shower, their bodies are still releasing from their workouts, thus releasing even more moisture. Steam and sauna areas simply add to the moisture buildup. For these reasons, dehumidification becomes an all-important consideration.

“You need an exhaust system to capture all of that moist air and vent it out of the building,” Haber says. “If you don't vent properly, you end up with a musty smell in the locker room, migration of humidity and all of the other problems of poor ventilation. You want to feel negative pressure in the locker room — air flowing in from the fitness area to the locker room and exhausted out in the shower and toilet areas.”

Hervey Lavoie, architect and president of Ohlson Lavoie Collaborative, Denver, says the average cost of a good fitness facility ventilation system is $20 to $25 per square foot.

NEW AND GREEN

New ventilation technologies are available for fitness facilities. A liquid desiccant technology system, which consists of an absorber (or conditioner), a regenerator, pumps and heat exchangers, potentially can save more energy in HVAC systems than its solid desiccant counterpart, according to a report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. By using such a system, club operators can reduce regeneration energy costs and fully exploit evaporative cooling, the report's authors wrote.

Calvo says such systems have “a high affinity for water vapor and, thus, can greatly reduce the energy required for drying and dehumidification.”

Although that's good news if you want to save energy costs, there is a caveat to liquid desiccant technology.

“Unfortunately, the very high cost of natural gas that prevails today makes it difficult for the liquid desiccant air conditioning system to compete against more conventional electric vapor compression technologies,” Calvo says.

Kurt Broadhag, president of K Allan Consulting, a Los Angeles-based firm that specializes in health club design and management, says that most major manufacturers of ventilation equipment and systems have eco-friendly, Energy Star-rated products that club operators should consider, including solar-powered fans. But, he cautions, the initial cost for such products, especially if being used for a retrofitted locker room, can be high. Moreover, Broadhag says the return on investment of green building products in the fitness center environment often is intangible.

“You can't say, ‘If I put in this green system, 50 more members will renew,’” he says. “In the commercial building world, there have been exhaustive studies that show employee sick days are reduced and productivity improves in green buildings, but it's hard to show those things in a fitness center.”

Club operators also can use a bi-polar ionization air-purification system, which can be integrated into an HVAC system or used as standalone portable units. Air passes through a patented ionization tube, which energizes the air to form bi-polar (i.e., positive/negative) ions. Because the system brings in less outside air, it can help reduce heating and cooling costs, according to the manufacturer of the system. The technology also breaks down odors, so the air smells crisp and clean. Several sports teams, including the NFL's Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars, have installed the system in their training and locker rooms.

Continue to Page 2: Displacement or Not?

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2012 Penton Media Inc.